


These Kids Are All Right

by GE72



Category: Kids Incorporated
Genre: Future TV characters, Gen, TV references
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-17
Updated: 2018-06-17
Packaged: 2019-05-24 15:02:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,698
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14956875
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GE72/pseuds/GE72
Summary: (Season 5) In a series of vignettes, the band meets a variety of kids after their shows. Kids who will grow up to be someone you may know. See if you can figure out who they are.





	These Kids Are All Right

On any day at The P*lace, any number of kids can show up. Since The P*lace was close to an elementary school and a middle school, that number of could range anywhere from a dozen to a hundred or more.

But one thing was constant – the music was always sounding great. And with a group like Kids Incorporated – Ryan, Stacy, Richie, Connie, Kenny, and Devyn – playing and singing, that wasn’t about to change.

The kind of kids that showed up to see them perform never varied. They were their classmates, of course. Sometimes, kids from other schools and neighborhoods showed up as well. They were all kinds – popular, beautiful, athletic, intelligent, younger, older. Basically, the cross section of the youth of America.

But sometimes, there would be one or two that would stick out. The Kids had met varying types over the past couple of years, ranging from practical jokers, to exchange students, to runaways, to those just on vacation.

Like these kind of kids….

**1 – A KID’S PROFILE**

After one show at The P*lace, the Kids acknowledged the cheers from the fans inside. As the others went backstage or to the counter to get a soda from Riley, Ryan and Richie saw a fan at one of the tables. He was sitting alone and didn’t seem to have watched them perform.

“He looks so out of place,” Richie said.

Ryan and Richie came up to the table where the little boy was sitting. He looked about eight years old, his brown hair tousled about, and wearing eyeglasses. There was a book in front of him, as well as a leather book bag next to it. 

“Are you okay?” Ryan asked. “You look all alone.”

“No, I’m not,” the boy said. “I did listen to your music. I find it refreshing, though I must admit I tend to favor classical music.”

Ryan wondered if he knew Stacy and Renee’s cousin from England, who was also into classical music. He looked at the book that was on the table.

“’Sherlock Holmes,’ by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle,” Ryan read, seeing the title on the old cover. “I have one of his books.”

“This is ‘The Sign Of Four’,” the boy replied, with an intelligence that made him seem older than eight years old. “It’s my mom’s copy. She got it in London when she was much younger.”

“It looks like it’s been through a lot,” Richie said.

“That’s because it’s from 1890,” the boy replied. “Even though my mom is more into European Renaissance literature.”

“That’s an original copy!” Ryan exclaimed. “That’s so cool.”

“You would think that,” Richie said.

“You actually like classic literature?” the boy asked Ryan.

“Detective fiction, especially Sherlock Holmes,” Ryan replied. “But I’ve read some Agatha Christie novels as well.”

“You’re such a nerd,” Richie said to Ryan.

The boy looked at Ryan oddly. “Not necessarily,” the boy said. “I noticed that you’re left handed, and left handed people tend to be more intelligent than right handed people. Your grades are probably higher than the norm of students in your class. You are more talented than most but more than you realize. You have some awareness of this, because of that leather jacket of yours. It makes you look tough but in reality, it masks that you’re a very intelligent, sensitive person.”

Richie looked over Ryan’s leather jacket. Ryan just looked at the boy who just gave him a description of himself in a way he never thought he could.

He then looked at Richie. “As for you, as a drummer,” he said, “you’re always in the background, but sometimes you feel the need to be in front of things. You’re a good person, but you tend to do things impulsively. That sometimes gets you into trouble, though you mean well.”

Richie just looked at the boy. The word “impulsively” made Ryan think of Richie’s attempt to raffle off a date with Renee.

“I’m learning how to read and analyze people and their behavior,” the boy said. 

“Okay,” Richie said, still in disbelief.

“Just like Sherlock Holmes?” Ryan asked.

“Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was more into deductive reasoning and logic,” the boy said. “But something like that, yes.”

“You must be really smart,” Richie said.

“I have an IQ of 187,” the boy said, “but your full intelligence quotient doesn’t reach its peak until you’re twelve years old.”

“Spencer!” someone called out.

The boy looked over to where the person was calling. “Over here mom.”

An older woman with short blonde hair, wearing a blouse and skirt, and a shawl over her blouse came over to them. 

“There you are,” she said. “I’m done with my lecture at the university.”

“That’s good mom,” the boy said. “Can I stay for a few more songs? This band is pretty good.”

“Sorry, Spencer,” his mother said. “We have to get packed and head back home soon.”

“Okay,” he said. He looked at Ryan and Richie, and said, “Nice to meet you two.”

The two of them watched as Spencer put the Sherlock Holmes book into his book bag and walked with his mother out of The P*lace.

“I wonder how he would read Kenny or Devyn,” Richie wondered aloud.

Ryan said to Richie, “You know, if he had won that raffle of yours last year, Renee would have really clobbered you.”

**2 – FULL OF SOUND AND MATH**

It was Tuesday. The band was rehearsing some new songs at The P*lace for their next show on Friday. But not all of them were there. Ryan was playing in a baseball game that afternoon at the park a few blocks away and wouldn’t be there at least until four o’clock. Even so, the band rehearsed, as some kids had sat down inside The P*lace.

They were in the middle of rehearsing “Heaven Is A Place On Earth” when Stacy stopped everything and everyone.

“Is it me or is something seem off?” she asked.

“We’re all doing what we’re supposed to,” Connie replied.

Kenny looked around the stage. “All the lights are on.”

“I don’t think that’s what she meant,” Devyn said.

“Let’s try again,” Stacy said.

So they began again. Halfway through the first verse, Stacy stopped them again.

“Now what?” Kenny asked.

“Something’s off,” Stacy replied.

“Are you sure?” Devyn asked.

“Check everything!” Stacy said. 

Richie rattled off a few beats on his drum set. “Everything’s fine back here.”

Kenny and Devyn checked the amplifiers. “The amps seem fine.”

The backups checked their instruments. Dee thumped a few chords on the bass, and Brian played a few chords on the guitar. Kimberly hit a few notes on her keyboards. All sounded fine. Still, Stacy wasn’t convinced.

“No singing,” she said. “Just the music.”

The others shrugged, but complied. Connie, Devyn, Kenny, and Stacy, sat back and listened as the others started playing the song. They listened for what was bugging Stacy. A few bars into the first verse, Stacy heard it.

“There it is!” she exclaimed. Everyone stopped playing.

“What?” Kenny asked. Then he heard the feedback. There was a reverberating echo that wasn’t supposed to be there now that the music had stopped.

“It’s the speakers,” Stacy said.

There were two large speakers, one on each side of the stage. But the speakers were facing the audience, so what was causing the feedback? They never had problems with the speakers before.

“Come on Stacy,” Richie said from behind his drums. “Maybe Ryan can figure it out when he gets back.”

“The feedback’s driving me crazy,” she said back. “It might turn off the audience.”

Then someone said, “Excuse me, maybe I can help.”

Stacy looked down from the stage. A young boy, about ten years old with short curly hair, had walked up to the edge of the stage.

“You can?” asked Stacy. “How?”

“I noticed that your speakers were facing inward just a little bit,” he said. “Point them more outward, directly at the audience, you won’t get a feedback. And maybe turn the sound down just enough, there will be no reverberations.”

Stacy thought about it. “Okay,” she finally said, “we’ll give it a try.” She directed Kenny and Richie to position one speaker, and Brian and Dee the other speaker. After they were done, the band resumed to rehearse the song. This time they played it all the way through and there was no echoes or reverberations when they were done.

“That sounded great!” Stacy said to the others when they were done. She looked down at the young boy who was still there. “How did you know how to do that?”

“Simple physics and mathematics,” he said. “The speed of sound travels at 331 meters per second but if it collides with itself, as in two separate but equal forces, it will create a reverberating echo. My guess is that one of your speakers is unbalanced or is simply performing at a decreased volume due to overuse and….”

The band listened as the boy rattled off what was basically, a long worded mathematical problem and its variations and solutions. The boy sounded like he was a mathematical genius of some kind. And yet, the way he explained it, they all understood it.

“Excuse me,” Kenny said, “are you some kind of genius?”

The boy replied, “Only when it comes to math.”

“Thanks for helping us out,” Devyn said.

Richie had come out from behind his drum set. “Maybe he can help us with our math homework,” he said.

“I think he’s beyond two plus two,” Connie said to him. The others laughed.

A few minutes later, Ryan came in, dressed in a baseball uniform, carrying a baseball bat on his shoulder, with his glove hanging on the barrel. He was with someone else, about his age, also in a uniform (albeit the opposition’s) and carrying a baseball bat.

“You play a pretty good outfield,” Ryan said to him. “I can see you playing for the Dodgers one day.”

“Yeah, maybe,” his friend said. “But if playing baseball doesn’t work out, I have this dream job.”

“What’s that?”

“Working for the FBI.”

“That’s ambitious,” Ryan said. 

“Gotta dream big.”

“Have you thought about music?”

“Music? Naah.”

The young boy had walked up to Ryan. “You don’t want to hear him play music.”

Ryan’s friend said, “You don’t want to hear him play music either.”

“Our mom is making us take piano lessons,” the young boy said, holding up his hands. “We’re all thumbs.”

“One of the few things we have in common.”

Stacy came down from the stage. “Are you two brothers?”

Ryan’s friend asked, “Is it that obvious?”

“She would know,” Ryan said.

His friend introduced himself. “I’m Don. I see you’ve met my little brother Charlie.”

Kenny, Devyn, Connie, and Richie came down from the stage and said hi. “Your little brother helped us out just now,” Devyn said. They explained how Charlie solved their echo problem on stage.

“He could explain it to me, and I still wouldn’t get it,” Don said. 

“What is there to understand?” Charlie said. “Everything in the world is based upon math and numbers.” He looked at his brother. “One day, you’ll understand.”

“C’mon Charlie,” Don said. “Let’s get home so dad doesn’t worry.” The two brothers left The P*lace.

Stacy watched as they left. “You know, I bet those two or more alike than they realize.”

Richie added, “It wouldn’t surprise me.”

**3 – THIRTY POUNDS OF CRAZY**

When girls get bored, they start talking to each other about the latest trends in fashion, music, and who’s hot on TV. When boys get bored, they look for new ways to injure themselves and destroy public property at the same time.

It was an hour before their show at The P*lace. Ryan and Stacy came inside, where they saw Connie and Devyn at the counter with Gina, one of the dancers, and their keyboard player Kimberly. On the other side of the room, Kenny and Richie, along with Brian and Dee, were talking amongst themselves.

“What’s going on?” Stacy asked.

Devyn replied, “They’re trying to see who can land in the hospital first.”

That wasn’t what they were up to, but it could easily end up like that.

“Okay, here’s the bet,” Brian said to Kenny. “One of us leaps over the table and has to land feet first. Longest jump wins.”

“Running start?” Kenny asked.

“End of the wall.”

“You’re on!”

“Let’s make it more interesting,” Richie suggested. “Loser buys a sundae.”

“Hope your wallet is full,” Dee said. Richie pulled out a five dollar bill to prove it wasn’t. The boys cleared enough space to make a running jump over the table.

As the others watched, Kenny went back as far as he could. Then he took off running, making his jump just a foot in front of the table. He cleared the table but stumbled and fell on the landing.

“That’s gotta hurt,” remarked Gina.

Everyone looked as Kenny managed to sit up, his eyes rolling around like marbles after his dizzying jump and tumultuous landing.

“Your turn,” Richie said to Brian, as Kenny got up, still trying to regain a sense of equilibrium.

Brian went to the wall, then took off running. Like Kenny, he managed to leap over the table. Well, not quite. One of his feet clipped the table on the other side, and like Kenny, landed something other than feet first on the floor.

Stacy announced, “And the winner is…nobody!” Brian got up off the floor, just as wobbly as Kenny.

Then someone announced, “I’d like to try that!”

The girls looked at who wanted to take the dare. It was another girl, blonde haired, about eleven years old, with a slight build.

“You?” Connie asked. “You can do that?”

“I’ve done it before,” the girl replied. “In fact, I can jump over that table, grab whatever is on it, and land without spilling it.”

Upon hearing that, Richie saw dollar signs appear in his head. “You’re on!” he exclaimed.

“Can I get an ice cream sundae?” the girl asked. Behind the counter, Riley, the manager of The P*lace, made an ice cream sundae with hot fudge and a cherry on top, along with a spoon, and put it on the counter. The girl took the sundae, placed it on the middle of the table, and went to the takeoff point at the far end of the wall.

“Any takers?” Richie asked.

“Call me crazy,” Devyn said, “but I think she can do it.” She pulled out a five dollar bill of her pocket.

The bets were made, as Kenny, Richie, Brian, and Dee said no, and Devyn, Connie, Stacy, and Gina said yes. Ryan abstained from the wager.

“Ready?” Richie asked the girl. She nodded.

She took off running, then leaped into the air. She somersaulted over the table, her feet carrying her momentum over. And then, she landed on both feet, facing the table. The sundae was in her right hand, and nothing had spilled out.

Everyone’s mouth just dropped open, as the girl put a spoonful of sundae into her mouth and smiled.

“We concede,” Richie said as he walked past the girl. Five dollar bills were placed into the hands of the girls at the counter.

“That was so awesome,” Connie said. “Where’d you learn to do that?”

“I do lots of running away,” the girl said, as she finished off the sundae. 

“Who are you anyway?” Richie asked.

The girl placed the sundae glass on the counter. “Just call me Parker.” She looked over at Richie. “Thanks for the sundae.” With that, she walked out of The P*lace.

“That girl is crazy,” Kenny said, his sense of balance restored. “Crazy good.”

“More like thirty pounds of crazy,” Brian said, “in a ten pound bag.”

Richie reached into his pocket. The look on his face was one of horror, as he realized something wasn’t there.

“My wallet!” he exclaimed. “That crazy girl took my wallet!”

Richie ran for the doors of The P*lace and opened them. “Come back with my wallet!” he yelled.

Suddenly, his wallet was thrown back to him. Richie caught it with his free hand, and he quickly checked its contents.

“Thank you!”

**4 – PRETTY DANGEROUS IN PINK**

The crowd cheered as the band came off the stage from their latest set. Most of the band went backstage, but Stacy, Devyn, and Connie, went over to the counter. They sat down a couple of feet away from another girl, who looked about 16 years old.

“Hi there,” the girl said.

“Hi,” the girls returned.

“You sounded great.”

“Thank you,” Connie said. “We’ll be here all week.”

“Are you new in town?” Stacy asked the girl.

“No,” she said, “just passing through. I was visiting some relatives here in California.”

The girl was a brunette, wearing pink pants, and a pastel blouse over a pink t-shirt. She was slender as Stacy, but shorter like Devyn and Connie.

“Where are you from?” Devyn asked.

“Believe it or not, Canada,” she replied. “I live outside of Toronto. By the way, I’m Julianna.”

“Welcome to The P*lace,” Stacy said. If Ryan or Richie was out here, they would be using some lame pick-up line to get a date with Julianna.

“I wish there was a place like this back home,” Julianna said. “But I don’t know if it would work out.”

“Why is that?” asked Devyn. “Don’t they have rock and roll in Canada?”

“Of course, we do,” Julianna replied. “Ever hear of Corey Hart?” Stacy, Devyn, and Connie nodded. “Bryan Adams?” More nods. “Rush? Glass Tiger? Parachute Club? The Guess Who?”

“The who?” Connie asked.

“No, The Guess Who. Oh, never mind.”

“So how long will you be in town?” Stacy asked.

“I’m headed home tomorrow,” Julianna said. “But I got to do a lot while I was here. Me and my brothers went to Knotts Berry Farm, toured Universal Studios, even spent some time at the beach at Santa Monica. It’s my first time I’ve seen the Pacific Ocean.”

“It’s cool that you got to do all those things,” Devyn said. “What do you do back home?”

“Well, we live in one of those subdivisions outside of Toronto,” Julianna said. “Me and my friends get out to the mall a lot. I’m also really into gymnastics. I’ve been doing that for the past seven years.”

“Any Olympic dreams?” Connie asked.

“No, unfortunately,” Julianna replied. “But I did get to meet Kathy Johnson.”

“So did I!” Stacy said, remembering her encounter with the U.S. gymnast a few years ago.

The girls talked a little more at the counter, as Julianna told them about the snowy winters, the short but beautiful summers, and how one day, the Toronto Maple Leafs would become the greatest hockey team in Canada again.

Soon, the girls went back on stage with the rest of the band to perform another set. Julianna stayed for the set, watching from the counter.

A couple of songs later, Stacy, Devyn, and Connie went back over to the counter, where Julianna was waiting. They also saw a guy coming up to her, about Julianna’s age, but not so clean cut or clean for that matter.

“Hey beautiful,” he said leeringly.

Julianna turned and looked at him. “Yes?”

“How about you and me on a date right now?”

“How about you walk on out of here and find someone who’s actually like you?” Julianna responded. “Like a goat.”

The girls saw the exchange of words and chuckled at Julianna’s retort. However, it looked like the guy was not about to leave.

“Oh, come on baby,” he said. “You look like the girl for me.”

“You look like you need a bath,” Julianna replied. “Along with a delousing.”

The guy still wasn’t taking the hint. “I bet all the guys want to go on a date with you,” he said. “But since I’m the only one here, you don’t have to wait to long. We can do anything you want.”

Julianna looked at him with contempt, but then raised up her right hand, and asked, “Do you like my nails?”

The guy looked at her hand, then took a hold of it. “Why, yes!”

Suddenly, Julianna grabbed his hand and twisted it. The guy winced, as she twisted it some more, eliciting a cry of anguish from him. “Why you – “

He never got to finish the sentence as Julianna yanked his arm, and in a physical move that somehow defied physics and the laws of gravity, managed to flip him 360 degrees in the air before he landed face down on the floor with a violently loud THUD!

Stacy, Connie, and Devyn, gasped in astonishment at the martial arts like move that Julianna just committed, as did everyone else inside The P*lace.

“Julianna!” exclaimed Connie. “Where did you learn that?”

Julianna was about to answer when the guy got up, took one look at her, and decided to leave the building, his reputation destroyed, and some of his body parts in pain. 

“I took a self defense class last year,” she finally answered. “It was a lot easier than I thought, even for me.”

“He won’t be asking you out again,” Stacy said. 

“He should be lucky,” Julianna said. “My dad has also been teaching me how to shoot handguns and rifles.”

“Remind me not to get on your bad side,” said Devyn. “Maybe you can be some kind of superhero on TV.”

Julianna thought about that. “I don’t think so,” she said. “Hollywood would never take a superhero seriously who wears the amount of pink clothes I do.”

“They can make an exception,” Stacy said.

Julianna checked her watch. “I better get going,” she said. “It was great meeting all of you.” The girls said their goodbyes and watched as she left The P*lace.

“You know, I bet when she gets older, she becomes a police officer or something like that,” Connie said.

“I still think she’d make a great superhero on TV,” Devyn said.

Stacy said, “Only time will tell.”


End file.
